Simon Shepherd – författare

In this sophisticated and compelling introduction to puppet theatre, Penny Francis offers engaging contemporary perspectives on this universal art-form. She provides an account of puppetry's different facets, from its demands and techniques, through its uses and abuses, to its history and philosophy. Now recognized as a valuable and powerful medium used in the making of most forms of theatre and filmed work, those referring to Puppetry will discover something of the roots, dramaturgy, literature and techniques of this visual art form. The book gathers together material from an international selection of sources, bringing puppet theatre to life for the student, practitioner and amateur alike.

Is directing an art? Do directors need to be trained? What do directors actually do? These questions and more are answered in this accessibly written survey of the art of theatre direction. Its broad scope ranges across the theatres of both America and Europe, looking at practices from Stanislavski up to the present day.

This rich collection of readings offers a wide-ranging and authoritative survey of clown practices, history and theory, from the origins of the word clown through to contemporary clowning. Covering clowns in theatre, circus, cinema, TV, street and elsewhere, the author's stimulating narrative challenges assumptions and turns orthodoxy on its head.

This rich collection of readings offers a wide-ranging and authoritative survey of clown practices, history and theory, from the origins of the word clown through to contemporary clowning. Covering clowns in theatre, circus, cinema, TV, street and elsewhere, the author's stimulating narrative challenges assumptions and turns orthodoxy on its head.

Brown explores relationships between sound and theatre, focusing on sound's interdependence and interaction with human performance and drama. Suggesting different ways in which sound may be interpreted to create meaning, it includes key writings on sound design, as well as perspectives from beyond the discipline.

How has light influenced the staging of theatre throughout history?What does light contribute to performance?How does it make meaning?This collection explores the creative potential of light in the theatre. Through a wide range of extracts from historical accounts, new research and rare documents, some presented for the first time in English, Scott Palmer provides new ways of thinking about lighting as a creative performance practice. Focusing on elements such as:- The emergence of lighting design in the theatre- Equipment and techniques- The dramaturgy of light- Its impact on actor, audience and playhouse- The semiotics and phenomenology of light in performanceThe book reveals why light has such a profound effect on the audience's experience of a theatrical event.

How has light influenced the staging of theatre throughout history?What does light contribute to performance?How does it make meaning?This collection explores the creative potential of light in the theatre. Through a wide range of extracts from historical accounts, new research and rare documents, some presented for the first time in English, Scott Palmer provides new ways of thinking about lighting as a creative performance practice. Focusing on elements such as:- The emergence of lighting design in the theatre- Equipment and techniques- The dramaturgy of light- Its impact on actor, audience and playhouse- The semiotics and phenomenology of light in performanceThe book reveals why light has such a profound effect on the audience's experience of a theatrical event.

The English Theatrical Avant-Garde, 1900–1925 unearths an extensive range of hitherto forgotten or ignored theatre practices. In doing so it reveals some of the well-known figures of the early twentieth-century English theatre in a strikingly new light. It fluently describes an intensity of innovation and experiment that together made the Edwardian theatre rather more radical, and rather more queer, than we’ve ever thought.Where the majority of writing on the early twentieth-century theatrical avant-garde is concerned with European movements and experiments, English activity of the period is often seen as parochial and conservative – mainly realism and issues-based drama. This book presents a new model of how avant-gardes might work; a model based not on masculine individualism but on communal inclusion. In describing this fascinating material, the author introduces us to many new figures and shows familiar ones in different ways: there’s Florence Farr, independent woman; Bob Trevelyan, radical pacifist and music drama pioneer; Granville Barker doing fairy plays while de-dramatising drama; Laurence Housman, socialist, homosexual, scripting St Francis; and the oddly modern J.M. Barrie. Together they made theatre practices rich in their diversity but consistent in their attempt to be new, producing a theatrical avant-garde unlike any other.This is a vital and indispensable new study for scholars and students of early twentieth-century theatre in England and beyond.

The English Theatrical Avant-Garde, 1900–1925 unearths an extensive range of hitherto forgotten or ignored theatre practices. In doing so it reveals some of the well-known figures of the early twentieth-century English theatre in a strikingly new light. It fluently describes an intensity of innovation and experiment that together made the Edwardian theatre rather more radical, and rather more queer, than we’ve ever thought.Where the majority of writing on the early twentieth-century theatrical avant-garde is concerned with European movements and experiments, English activity of the period is often seen as parochial and conservative – mainly realism and issues-based drama. This book presents a new model of how avant-gardes might work; a model based not on masculine individualism but on communal inclusion. In describing this fascinating material, the author introduces us to many new figures and shows familiar ones in different ways: there’s Florence Farr, independent woman; Bob Trevelyan, radical pacifist and music drama pioneer; Granville Barker doing fairy plays while de-dramatising drama; Laurence Housman, socialist, homosexual, scripting St Francis; and the oddly modern J.M. Barrie. Together they made theatre practices rich in their diversity but consistent in their attempt to be new, producing a theatrical avant-garde unlike any other.This is a vital and indispensable new study for scholars and students of early twentieth-century theatre in England and beyond.

What is implied when we refer to the study of performing arts as 'drama', 'theatre' or 'performance'? Each term identifies a different tradition of thought and offers different possibilities to the student or practitioner. This book examines the history and use of the terms and investigates the different philosophies, politics, languages and institutions with which they are associated. Simon Shepherd and Mick Wallis:analyze attitudes to drama, theatre and performance at different historical juncturestrace a range of political interventions into the field(s)explore and contextualise the institutionalisation of drama and theatre as university subjects, then the emergence of 'performance' as practice, theory and academic disciplinesguide readers through major approaches to drama, theatre and performance, from theatre history, through theories of ritual or play, to the idea of performance as paradigm for a postmodern agediscuss crucial terms such as action, alienation, catharsis, character, empathy, interculturalism, mimesis, presence or representation in a substantial 'keywords' section.Continually linking their analysis to wider cultural concerns, the authors here offer the most wide-ranging and authoritative guide available to a vibrant, fast-moving field and vigorous debates about its nature, purpose and place in the academy.

What is implied when we refer to the study of performing arts as 'drama', 'theatre' or 'performance'? Each term identifies a different tradition of thought and offers different possibilities to the student or practitioner. This book examines the history and use of the terms and investigates the different philosophies, politics, languages and institutions with which they are associated. Simon Shepherd and Mick Wallis:analyze attitudes to drama, theatre and performance at different historical juncturestrace a range of political interventions into the field(s)explore and contextualise the institutionalisation of drama and theatre as university subjects, then the emergence of 'performance' as practice, theory and academic disciplinesguide readers through major approaches to drama, theatre and performance, from theatre history, through theories of ritual or play, to the idea of performance as paradigm for a postmodern agediscuss crucial terms such as action, alienation, catharsis, character, empathy, interculturalism, mimesis, presence or representation in a substantial 'keywords' section.Continually linking their analysis to wider cultural concerns, the authors here offer the most wide-ranging and authoritative guide available to a vibrant, fast-moving field and vigorous debates about its nature, purpose and place in the academy.

Breaking new ground in the study of performance theory, this maverick and powerful project from renowned Renaissance scholar and queer theorist Simon Shepherd presents a unique take on theory and the physical reality of theatre.Examining a range of material, Theatre, Body, Pleasure addresses a significant gap in the literary and drama studies arenas and explores the interplay of bodily value, the art of bodies and the physical responses to that art. It explains first how the body makes meaning and carries value. Then it describes the relationships between time and space and body. The book’s features include:* large historical range, from medieval to postmodern * case studies offering close readings of written texts * examples of how to ‘read for the body’, exploring written text as a ‘discipline’ of the body * breadth of cultural reference, from stage plays through to dance culture * a range of theoretical approaches, including dance analysis and phenomenology Writing in accessible prose, Shepherd introduces new ways of analyzing dramatic text and has produced a book which is part theatre history, part dramatic criticism and part theatrical tour de force. Students of drama, theatre and performance studies and cultural studies will find this an absolute must read.

Breaking new ground in the study of performance theory, this maverick and powerful project from renowned Renaissance scholar and queer theorist Simon Shepherd presents a unique take on theory and the physical reality of theatre.Examining a range of material, Theatre, Body, Pleasure addresses a significant gap in the literary and drama studies arenas and explores the interplay of bodily value, the art of bodies and the physical responses to that art. It explains first how the body makes meaning and carries value. Then it describes the relationships between time and space and body. The book’s features include:* large historical range, from medieval to postmodern * case studies offering close readings of written texts * examples of how to ‘read for the body’, exploring written text as a ‘discipline’ of the body * breadth of cultural reference, from stage plays through to dance culture * a range of theoretical approaches, including dance analysis and phenomenology Writing in accessible prose, Shepherd introduces new ways of analyzing dramatic text and has produced a book which is part theatre history, part dramatic criticism and part theatrical tour de force. Students of drama, theatre and performance studies and cultural studies will find this an absolute must read.

ORLAN: A Hybrid Body of Artworks is an in-depth academic account of ORLAN's pioneering art in its entirety. The book covers her career in performance and a range of other art forms. This single accessible overview of ORLAN's practices describes and analyses her various innovative uses of the body as artistic material. Edited by Simon Donger with Simon Shepherd and ORLAN herself, the collection highlights her artistic impact from the perspectives of both performance and visual cultures. The book features: vintage texts by ORLAN and on ORLAN's work, including manifestos, key writings and critical studies ten new contributions, responses and interviews by leading international specialists on performance and visual arts over fifty images demonstrating ORLAN's art, with thirty full colour pictures a new essay by ORLAN, written specially for this volume a new bibliography of writing on ORLAN an indexed listing of ORLAN’s artworks and key themes.

ORLAN: A Hybrid Body of Artworks is an in-depth academic account of ORLAN's pioneering art in its entirety. The book covers her career in performance and a range of other art forms. This single accessible overview of ORLAN's practices describes and analyses her various innovative uses of the body as artistic material. Edited by Simon Donger with Simon Shepherd and ORLAN herself, the collection highlights her artistic impact from the perspectives of both performance and visual cultures. The book features: vintage texts by ORLAN and on ORLAN's work, including manifestos, key writings and critical studies ten new contributions, responses and interviews by leading international specialists on performance and visual arts over fifty images demonstrating ORLAN's art, with thirty full colour pictures a new essay by ORLAN, written specially for this volume a new bibliography of writing on ORLAN an indexed listing of ORLAN’s artworks and key themes.

British theatre has long been regarded as a world-leader in terms of its quality, creativity and range. Starting in 1900, this book introduces the features that characterise modern and current British theatre. These features include experimental performances under motorways alongside plays by Stoppard and Ayckbourn, amateur theatre and virtual spaces, the emergence of the director, the changing role of writers and political and community shows. The book is clearly divided into four sections: where it happens, who does it, what they make and why they do it. It discusses theatre buildings and theatre which refuses buildings; company organisation, ensembles and collectives, and different sorts of acting. A large section describes the major work done for the stage, from Shaw through to Complicite, via poetic drama, different sorts of realism and documentary drama. The Introduction stands apart from other accounts of modern British theatre by bringing together buildings, people and plays.

British theatre has long been regarded as a world-leader in terms of its quality, creativity and range. Starting in 1900, this book introduces the features that characterise modern and current British theatre. These features include experimental performances under motorways alongside plays by Stoppard and Ayckbourn, amateur theatre and virtual spaces, the emergence of the director, the changing role of writers and political and community shows. The book is clearly divided into four sections: where it happens, who does it, what they make and why they do it. It discusses theatre buildings and theatre which refuses buildings; company organisation, ensembles and collectives, and different sorts of acting. A large section describes the major work done for the stage, from Shaw through to Complicite, via poetic drama, different sorts of realism and documentary drama. The Introduction stands apart from other accounts of modern British theatre by bringing together buildings, people and plays.

This book provides a comprehensive account of the cutlural history of English drama. Drawing upon new empirical research and the latest theoretical models, Shepherd and Womack show how the character of a given theatrical 'age', as traditionally described, is packed with contradictions and uneven in development. Focusing on key historical moments and modes, they offer chapters on Medieval Theatre, Renaissance Drama, Restoration Comedy, Melodrama, and Naturalism, and conclude with accounts of Post-War British Theatre and the State, and Drama in the Age of Television.

First published in 1989, Coming on Strong addresses itself to anyone, whatever their sexuality, who wants to know why gay men have become one of those most controversial minorities in 1980s Britain. What are the issues and what is to be done? This thoughtful and stimulating book looks at the relationship of gay men to law, politics and masculinity; at the specific position of Asian gays and young people; and at the threat to civil liberties posed by the homosexual law reform. Alongside analysis of the modern gay scene, there are accounts from the inside of various areas of gay work and politics. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, queer studies and cultural studies.

First published in 1989, Coming on Strong addresses itself to anyone, whatever their sexuality, who wants to know why gay men have become one of those most controversial minorities in 1980s Britain. What are the issues and what is to be done? This thoughtful and stimulating book looks at the relationship of gay men to law, politics and masculinity; at the specific position of Asian gays and young people; and at the threat to civil liberties posed by the homosexual law reform. Alongside analysis of the modern gay scene, there are accounts from the inside of various areas of gay work and politics. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, queer studies and cultural studies.

What does 'performance theory' really mean and why has it become so important across such a large number of disciplines, from art history to religious studies and architecture to geography? In this introduction Simon Shepherd explains the origins of performance theory, defines the terms and practices within the field and provides new insights into performance's wide range of definitions and uses. Offering an overview of the key figures, their theories and their impact, Shepherd provides a fresh approach to figures including Erving Goffman and Richard Schechner and ideas such as radical art practice, performance studies, radical scenarism and performativity. Essential reading for students, scholars and enthusiasts, this engaging account travels from universities into the streets and back again to examine performance in the context of political activists and teachers, countercultural experiments and feminist challenges, and ceremonies and demonstrations.

What does 'performance theory' really mean and why has it become so important across such a large number of disciplines, from art history to religious studies and architecture to geography? In this introduction Simon Shepherd explains the origins of performance theory, defines the terms and practices within the field and provides new insights into performance's wide range of definitions and uses. Offering an overview of the key figures, their theories and their impact, Shepherd provides a fresh approach to figures including Erving Goffman and Richard Schechner and ideas such as radical art practice, performance studies, radical scenarism and performativity. Essential reading for students, scholars and enthusiasts, this engaging account travels from universities into the streets and back again to examine performance in the context of political activists and teachers, countercultural experiments and feminist challenges, and ceremonies and demonstrations.

Focussing on costume in performance, this reader brings together key texts, case studies and interviews. Exploring costume's role and function in a variety of theoretical, historical, conceptual and practical contexts, this exciting volume also reflects on the broader relationship between costume and visual culture throughout.

This wide-ranging volume explores the technical and physical aspects of voice as a craft, questioning its definitions, its historical presence, training practices and its publications. Drawing on a wealth of experience, Jane Boston presents a selection of readings that demonstrate and contextualize some of the defining moments of voice throughout history. This clear and accessible text examines the relationship between voice and aesthetics and poetics, against the backdrop of class, race and gender politics, demonstrating how vocal training has been and still is inevitably connected to such issues.Underpinned by theory, voice practitioner accounts, and cultural and historical contextualization, this comprehensive resource will be invaluable for practitioners, researchers and students of voice studies, physical theatre and theatre history.

This wide-ranging volume explores the technical and physical aspects of voice as a craft, questioning its definitions, its historical presence, training practices and its publications. Drawing on a wealth of experience, Jane Boston presents a selection of readings that demonstrate and contextualize some of the defining moments of voice throughout history. This clear and accessible text examines the relationship between voice and aesthetics and poetics, against the backdrop of class, race and gender politics, demonstrating how vocal training has been and still is inevitably connected to such issues.Underpinned by theory, voice practitioner accounts, and cultural and historical contextualization, this comprehensive resource will be invaluable for practitioners, researchers and students of voice studies, physical theatre and theatre history.

This diverse book brings together theoretical and practical viewpoints on objects in performance, how they can be part of theatre scenery, equal partners in performance, or autonomous things. Through close analysis of specific performances, Eleanor Margolies examines actor training, scenography, materials, construction techniques and object theatre. The text investigates a number of critical questions, including: what the difference is between a theatre prop and an everyday object; how audiences respond to the various ways that props are used by actors and designers; and whether devising with ‘stuff’ affect the making process or the attitudes to materiality embodied in performance.With discussions of papier mâché and collapsing chairs, fake food and stage blood, Props is an essential sourcebook for students, practitioners and researchers of theatre, design and prop-making.

This diverse book brings together theoretical and practical viewpoints on objects in performance, how they can be part of theatre scenery, equal partners in performance, or autonomous things. Through close analysis of specific performances, Eleanor Margolies examines actor training, scenography, materials, construction techniques and object theatre. The text investigates a number of critical questions, including: what the difference is between a theatre prop and an everyday object; how audiences respond to the various ways that props are used by actors and designers; and whether devising with ‘stuff’ affect the making process or the attitudes to materiality embodied in performance.With discussions of papier mâché and collapsing chairs, fake food and stage blood, Props is an essential sourcebook for students, practitioners and researchers of theatre, design and prop-making.

Now in its 4th edition, this is an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the critical study of drama. Using familiar examples of classic and contemporary works such as Shakespeare’s King Lear, Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good, the book explores the essential elements of play texts, from character, dialogue and plot to theatrical space.With more in depth guidance on how to study plays in and as performance, both live and in recordings available online, the 4th edition of Studying Plays now includes:· new examples throughout the book drawn from a range of 21st-century plays by established and emergent writers for diverse theatres and companies· new explorations of how plays structure and engage audience response· a complete new section on the analysis of theatre of witness and testimony; monodrama; and postdramatic texts.

Now in its 4th edition, this is an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the critical study of drama. Using familiar examples of classic and contemporary works such as Shakespeare’s King Lear, Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good, the book explores the essential elements of play texts, from character, dialogue and plot to theatrical space.With more in depth guidance on how to study plays in and as performance, both live and in recordings available online, the 4th edition of Studying Plays now includes:· new examples throughout the book drawn from a range of 21st-century plays by established and emergent writers for diverse theatres and companies· new explorations of how plays structure and engage audience response· a complete new section on the analysis of theatre of witness and testimony; monodrama; and postdramatic texts.